Yahoo creates new feature to help rid users of recycled email spam

Yahoo recently recycled a number of dormant email addresses, doling out previously unavailable IDs to new users who requested them in an effort to give the service a new start.

If you received a recycled email address, however, it's inevitable that you'll get a message or two intended for the account's previous owner. As a result, Yahoo is now rolling out a "Not my email" button to help redirect those unwanted messages.

"It will appear as an option under the 'Spam' button in Yahoo Mail. It will be live globally by the end of this week," a Yahoo spokeswoman said.

According to TechCrunch, which first reported the story, the percentage of users affected by this misdirected email is "very, very small, even in light of the sheer number of users of Yahoo's service."

According to Yahoo, it has been "working with partners, like e-commerce and social networking sites, on identifying that you're the new owner of a Yahoo username, and not the previous one."

But some emails do slip through the cracks, prompting the addition of the "not my email" button.

According to TechCrunch, some of the mistakes might just stem from human error. A lot of the recycled email addresses are very easy-to-remember monikers (like chloe@yahoo.com), so people filling out forms might give a quick, "fake" address that actually belongs to you.